Considering how many private prisons will be looking to quash this on the cheap, things might get... "interesting".

Well, considering that I read in an in-depth undercover article (shit, I think someone linked it here, anyway, it's a million pages long and I don't have it anymore, so just take my word for this) that talked about how the CCA cut deals with prison gangs to keep "security" in an Idaho prison to save on labor costs, yeah, I think "interesting" might be underselling it.

I mean, I'm not saying that the CCA is entirely capable of hiring gang members to strongarm/beat the shit out of/kill strike leaders.

Militia members acquitted. Black men gunned down by police. Government forces arresting Sioux on behalf of a corporate interest. On and on and on and fucking on.

I'm tired of hearing that change takes time. Shit, I've got one of those "100 years ago today" newspaper headline feeds and I keep accidentally clicking stories thinking they're contemporary. Hey, throw in open brawling over a presidential election because that one suckered me too. I won't say nothing has changed. At the risk of understatement: The world is a better place than it was in 1916, or 1938, or 1963... but fuck me if it's not disappointing to see this same dogshit over and over.

I agree that sometimes it feels like nothing has changed but, as a minority, I have to say that while it is difficult to not get jaded about this shit, not acknowledging that we've actually gotten a lot of shit done if the last 100 (and at a more rapid rate in the last 50 and an even more rapid rate in the last 25) years does at least two things off of the top of my head that are terrible.

The first is that it sorta forgets and sells short all the people that've fought, worked hard and in some cases died for all we've gotten today.

It also, and possibly even worse then the first, allows people to believe that Trump (or someone like him) winning and 'destroying the system' would be better than that not happening for minorities.

I was already chastising myself and editing my post before I saw yours. I don't want to give short shrift to progress, but hell if it doesn't feel like the world is always about a century behind where you thought it was supposed to be.

But the Bundy family's mostly white, anti-government movement has had an unintended effect: It has refocused attention on the ancestral rights Native Americans hold to lands across the Western half of the United States.

"The duty that tribes are claiming to their sacred sites, to ancestral homelands, places to hunt, fish and provide for themselves, those things are being ignored by the American government," said Chase Iron Eyes, a tribal attorney and member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

Iron Eyes, who is running for North Dakota's at-large seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, says with defiance that the plight of the Burns Paiute in Oregon brought a kind of awakening in Indian Country. He is optimistic that acts of civil disobedience and unarmed, peaceful protests will bring land reforms.

It's not that things are going great out there; obviously they're not. But we're hearing about this shit now. We're hearing about what's going on with the Dakota Access Pipeline. Hell, there have even been positive responses from the President, and that's a pretty good step.

I like to think things are turning around. But fuck, sometimes it's hard to see it.

Back on the Bundy thing: the "conspiracy to prevent government workers from doing their jobs" charge was a pretty weird and wonky way to go. They really should have gone with criminal trespassing. I get that it's a lighter sentence, but it would have made for a much easier conviction.

In a surprise, Spanier — the only one of the three to take his case to trial earlier this year — actually received the lightest sentence: four to 12 months, with the first two in jail and the remainder served under house arrest. Former university athletic director Tim Curley, 63, received a sentence of seven to 23 months, with three in jail, while former former vice president Gary Schultz, 67, was sentenced to six to 23 months, with two months in jail. All three men were convicted of the same misdemeanor charge of child endangerment, but Curley and Schultz both reached plea agreements and testified at Spanier’s trial in March.

Far too fucking light, if you ask me, but this is all they're going to be remembered for for the rest of their lives and beyond, and that's something. The damage to their legacies may be more of a deterrent in future cases than their jail sentences, though I'm not going to pretend to understand the kind of mind that would even consider covering for a child molester.

The fucking weird thing is, that mindset you mention, the covering for a child molester one, almost seems to be the default.

I know, I know. That's a big assertion, and I've got no stats to back that up. But shit, it happens so fucking often. Catholic Church (shit this one still pisses me off to this day. They fucking got so much of the heat they would have gotten distracted by 9/11 happening right after the story started to break) shit aside, there are tons and tons of stories of families just... not reporting, despite knowing it's going on. When I was young, even my community church (not catholic) had some shitlord who molested a girl slightly younger than I was, and a lot of the church members tried to fucking protect him.

I really don't want to believe that most people's reaction to learning about someone molesting a kid is "let's sweep it under the rug." But even if it's not a large part of society, it's a large enough part to fucking make it keep happening over and over and over.

Earlier in this thread, I talked about how it doesn't make sense to me to send non-threats to prison. I don't -really- consider these guys or people like them threats, (in a direct way, at least, just being enablers) but I'll make an exception about sending them to prison for this kind of shit. If anything, this is the one time I agree with the thesis "show the rest that this behavior is NOT ACCEPTABLE".

The short version is that it's a defense mechanism. Exposing it would upset what's going on now. The default shock reaction is an immediate attempt to figure out how to prevent anything from getting more wrong than it already is. Sweeping it under the rug is the fastest way to go back to pretending it never happens. Out of sight, out of mind.